Swedish PM under fire over Saudi arms deal

The Swedish government was on Friday coming under increased pressure over a military arms deal with Saudi Arabia, as three Social Democrat MPs called for Prime Minister Stefan Löfven to end the agreement.

Löfven has previously stated he wants to renegotiate the deal, but three of his own MPs argued on Friday that Sweden should pull out completely.

Johan Büser, Sara Karlsson and Lawen Redar wrote in a debate article in newspaper Dagens Nyheter: “It is not defensible to export weapons to a cruel regime”.

“Weapon trade and the arming of rogue states can hardly be legitimized through the argument that trade is good,” they said.

The Swedish government has faced criticism of its arms deal with Saudi Arabia before.

In November 2005 the then Social Democrat government signed a so called memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia. The deal was extended by the conservative right-wing alliance government in 2010 and will be extended for another five years in 2015 unless either party chooses to end it.